Start with wildly popular MINI Cooper. Add more space, a higher
ride, a couple more doors so as to be courteous to the passengers in the
rear seat, and an innovative barn-door style rear hatch. That gets you a
Countryman. Now, take the Countryman platform, keep the size, but delete
the rear passenger doors, barn doors for the back, a center rear seat, and
drop the roofline about an inch and a half – What we end up with is
essentially a vehicle that looks not unlike the MINI Cooper we started
with, although built to about 125% scale. Welcome to the Paceman.

It’s important to note that while the sheetmetal looks like
the quintessential vehicle to which we’ve become accustomed over the
past decade-plus, not much remains of MINI’s British heritage. Even
the frame sticker on a MINI these days notes “MFG BY BAYERISCHE
MOTOREN WERKE AG” – As BMW owns the MINI marque, really what
we’ve ended up with is a BMW wedged into a British-style design,
built in Graz, Austria. This can lead to a somewhat disconcerting feeling,
as if the Paceman has two personalities. Familiar design and touches of the
original MINI on the inside, but instruments right up to and including the
familiar BMW amber glow are classic BMW.

On the outside, the Paceman really does emulate an upsized MINI
Cooper. It’s hard to see the distinction between the Paceman and the
original article unless viewed side-by-side, but the Paceman carries subtle
design differences, such as restyled headlights and taillights that give
the Paceman away. There are also not-so-subtle differences that we
can’t claim to be fans of, such as the somewhat garish chrome
surrounding headlights and taillights, and the “PACEMAN”
designation in big bold chrome letters traversing most of the rear hatch.

Inside, the Paceman is surprisingly spacious, at least for the
driver and front passenger – the vehicle comfortably accommodated a
six-foot-three passenger, a feat probably not as likely in the typical MINI
Cooper.

By virtue of being a Paceman and not a Countryman, this vehicle has
two individual rear seats rather than a bench in the back, with a nifty
rail between them to accommodate interchangeable accessories, such as a
pair of cupholders. Truth be told, although theoretically we’re
losing capacity for a fifth occupant, three across will never work well in
practice in such a small car, so we prefer the Paceman’s setup of two
individual seats as a nice nod to reality. The back seat is still quite
cramped and although accommodating of car seats and children, it’s
unlikely that adults will be happy spending much time here.

While comfortable and reasonably spacious, we found the
driver’s seating position to present something of a visibility
challenge. Across a range of heights of drivers, no one was able to
position themselves perfectly – in particular, the top quarter of the
tachometer and the bottom quarter of the passenger side mirror would be cut
off by the steering wheel and the passenger side door, respectively. Since
the cluster holding the tachometer and other basic instrumentation adjusts
up and down with the steering wheel adjustment, no amount of adjustment of
the driver’s seat was able to address this.

Instrumentation and controls for driving are generally good, clear and easy to read, with the classic MINI center-mounted speedo
also replicated digitally in the tachometer cluster right in front of the
driver. We liked the funky chrome switches separated by small barriers for
secondary controls – it’s a neat and distinctive touch.

What we didn’t particularly care for is the navigation and
entertainment setup. Owing to BMW’s ownership and influence, MINI
uses a system clearly descended from BMW’s iDrive – but where
iDrive has matured over the last several years to become snappy and easy to
control… MINI’s implementation, not quite so much. MINI’s
setup is astoundingly confusing and difficult, with even simple operations
such as saving a radio preset or switching between them taking multiple
operations of the small joystick mounted between the driver and front
passenger’s seats.

We felt the overall setup to be needlessly
complex, particularly so in such a small car where a touchscreen would be
easier to control and well within reach. We’d even go so far as to
say we recommend purchasing a MINI without the Nav Pack option so as to
reduce the potential for a dangerously distracting situation while driving.

On the highway and around town, the Paceman feels generally good to
drive. At highway speeds, downshifts are quick and precise for easy
passing, and the 181 horsepower 1.6-liter turbo 4 feels well suited to the
application.

The Paceman is, however, plagued by some turbo lag when first
put into motion. It takes a little getting used to the throttle – at
first, starts are herky-jerky as the driver feels the need to
overcompensate for the turbo lag. We did find the vehicle somewhat noisy at
highway speeds.

And then there’s the suspension. Firm. Very firm.
Maybe the firmest we’ve ever experienced. The Paceman bounces around
at highway speeds, and it can be a somewhat nerve-wracking experience to
hit a pavement seam at highway speed and feel the car jump several inches
side-to-side as the vehicle reacts.

At this point you may be thinking that the Paceman doesn’t
sound like a great car. We’re complaining about the infotainment
setup, the turbo lag, the suspension. However, nothing could be further
from the truth. Despite the shortcomings we’ve discussed, what
truly sets this car apart becomes immediately apparent the second you find
a twisty country road and flip the “SPORT” switch to tighten up
the throttle and steering.

Out here, the Paceman is transformed. With its
ALL4 full-time all-wheel drive and 19-inch alloy wheels fitted with W-rated
Pirelli P ZERO rubber, the Paceman simply becomes one with the asphalt in a
way few other cars can match. There is no hesitation, no shakiness in this
environment.

The Paceman sticks to the road and just begs to be pushed,
making for an utterly exhilarating driving experience – the
shortcomings on the highway are a small price to pay for the fun to be had
on the back roads.

All told, we can’t decide whether the MINI Cooper S Paceman
gets our recommendation. It won’t be a high-volume seller both in
contrast to its sibling the Countryman and to the larger market as a whole;
day to day practicality – and an eye-popping as-tested price
approaching $40,000 – may dictate that we look towards that
Countryman, or perhaps a more traditional compact crossover like the Kia
Sportage, for substantially less money.

On paper the Sportage isn't a terribly
different a vehicle, still powered by a turbocharged 4-cylinder engine, it
carries just a two-inch longer wheelbase – albeit closer to ten-inch
longer overall length, but also brings with it greater adaptability for
day-to-day use through its substantially larger interior, better
power-to-weight ratio, although with slightly lower gas mileage (2 mpg).

But the fun of flinging the MINI around corners and through twisty
canyons is an intangible that we can’t place a value on – and
just so much fun, you’ll need to drive it and decide for yourself.

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